Should Election Day Become A Federal Holiday? Weighing The Benefits And Drawbacks
Should Election Day Become A Federal Holiday? Weighing The Benefits And Drawbacks
Election Day is always held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November during an election year. Congress codified this tradition in 1845 to account for
Is it time to make Election Day a federal holiday? π³οΈ Some say it would boost voter turnout and align the U.S. with other democracies, while others argue it could create challenges for hourly workers and cost millions. Dive into the debate over whether a federal voting holiday is the best way to strengthen democracy or if there are better solutions. Check out the full breakdown!
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IMHO, yes, but you have to bring proof of having voted the next work day for it to count. And the State should respond to mail-in ballots with "I Voted" stickers - mail in ballots have deadlines, so maybe It'd be enough time for a round trip. Or if you drop off the ballot at a post office, postal workers can hand you a sticker. More money for the USPS; it's a win-win. Change the I voted sticker each year; counterfeiting would be more work than it's worth.
There'd be forgeries, lax enforcement, whatever; the point isn't to have a hard enforcement, like money, but just to encourage people to vote.
We'll never be a country that mandates voting, like some do, but anything that encourages people to vote is a good thing.
P.S. if we can't convert to a 4-day work week country, I think we should slowly create more federal holidays that fall on specific week days, until we have 52 of them.
Oh I love this but let's make the incentives better.
- Every company gets a tax deduction for each employee that votes
- Each locality, county, state gets a tax bonus from the federal government for every election it has and for each person who votes
- each person who votes is eligible to receive a tax stimulus the following year
All of this can be done today. Voter participation information is actually available at the local level. It's why I always get fliers for Republicans since I vote in their primaries. (My vote is more effective there than in the Democratic primary)
If this is your platform, I'll vote for you. Throw in a little RCV, and I'll canvas, too.
I want to get rid of FPTP voting but a recent veritasium video has me wondering if we should try something better than RCV.
Not saying I would vote no on RCV, but if we're going to change the voting method, let's do it in a way ensures that the people are best represented.
There are many better systems than RCV, but if has two things going for it:
- Already some momentum. It's already implemented widely (if not commonly) in the US and other countries.
- It's easy for people to understand, which is critical for trust, and possible to hand count if necessary.
With all due respect to Veritasium, perfect here is definitely the enemy of good. RCV is maybe the least good of many better-than-FPTP options, and has flaws; however, any argument for doing better than RCV based on "it has flaws" will always end up with arguing that we should use the Condorcet method, which would be impossible to approve and possibly impossible to implement.
The next best thing to RCV is far less of an improvement over RCV than RCV is over FPTP. I'd rather have STAR, but all of these options are broadly unknown, difficult to explain, and more complex to execute by hand than RCV. I'd rather have something, than stay stuck on FPTP.
I don't disagree one bit.
I just want people to realize that anything is better than FPTP but we shouldn't stop at RCV. We should relentlessly pursue democracy, ensuring that The People are represented in the most accurate way possible.
So yes, vote for RCV. But don't let it be the destination.
Agreed π€